The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei received President Barham Salih, on Saturday, November 17, 2018, at his office in Tehran, as part of Iraqi Presedent official visit to Iran.

Iraqi President Barham Salih has announced that his country has agreed to establish a “free-trade zone” along its border with Iran, following a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani in Tehran.

OPEC and allied oil-producing countries will likely need to cut crude supplies, perhaps by as much as one million barrels of oil a day, to rebalance the market after US sanctions on Iran failed to cut Tehran’s output, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said Monday.

Despite officially announcing the start of new round of sanctions against Iran, the United States has issued some sanctions waivers for a number of Iran’s oil costumers. As a result, Asian buyers of Iranian oil set to restart their purchases, while considering new mechanisms to keep ties with Tehran.

Oil prices slipped on Tuesday, weighed down by exemptions from Washington that will allow Iran’s biggest oil customers to keep buying from Tehran, as well as concerns that an economic slowdown may curb fuel demand growth.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry rejected on Saturday a statement issued by the US embassy in Baghdad in which it called on Tehran to “respect the sovereignty of the Iraqi government and permit the disarming, demobilisation, and reintegration” of Shia militias.

With the US granting a 180-day exemption on Iranian oil sanctions to India ahead of the restrictions kicking in from Monday, India and Iran are finalising details of a mechanism that will allow New Delhi to pay Tehran entirely in Indian currency, at a bank in India.

Despite officially announcing the return of nuclear-related sanctions against Iran, the US administration has stopped short of its end game plan for cutting Iran’s oil exports down to zero and grants sanction waivers to a number of Iran’s costumers. Meanwhile, Tehran downplays the new round of sanctions, underlining that the country has no worries in this regard.

Declaring withdrawal from the 1955 treaty of amity with Iran was the latest move by the US administration against the Islamic Republic, aimed at maximizing pressures on Tehran. In response, Tehran once again reiterates that Washington’s move proves how unreliable when it comes to international commitments.

Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization and vice president to Hassan Rouhani, said that if US President Donald Trump succeeded in dismantling the 2015 deal to curb the program, Tehran would resume uranium enrichment.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said Tehran has given warnings to the European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) about the future of the deal, Tasnim News Agency reported.

Lack of efforts by Europe to save the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal will have “serious consequences,” Kamal Kharrazi, chief of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, said on Sunday, according to Tehran Times daily.